New Delhi: State-run explorer Oil and Natural Gas Corp (ONGC) bid on Wednesday for 37 oil and gas blocks while private sector Vedanta Resources placed bids for all the 55 areas on offer in the first auction of oil and gas acreage under the new open acreage licensing policy (OALP), according to an official announcement. The Petroleum Ministry said in a release that a massive 110 bids had been received in the auction of 55 exploration blocks on offer that closed on Wednesday.

State-run Oil India Ltd (OIL) is the other major bidder in the round that also saw bidding by other public sector units like Indian Oil Corp, GAIL and Bharat Petroleum as consortium partners. The 55 blocks have a total area of around 60,000 sq km, the statement said. The OALP under the Hydrocarbon Exploration and Licensing Policy (HELP) now allows the investor to carve out blocks of their choice and submit an Expression of Interest (Eol) throughout the year. Under HELP, the competitive bidding will be continuous and blocks will be awarded twice a year.

HELP replaced nine earlier rounds under the New Exploration Licensing Policy (NELP) where government carved out areas for bidding. The main features of HELP are revenue sharing contracts, as opposed to the previous profit sharing model, single licence for both conventional as well as unconventional hydrocarbon resources exploration and marketing and pricing freedom.